For a teenager named Danny Bowman (19 years old), it was neither drugs nor video game that got him addicted but selfie or self-portrait photograph. It got ugly when he failed taking a perfect photo of himself and got frustrated then attempted a suicide.

It was all started when Bowman posted his selfie on Facebook when he was just 15 years old. Getting addicted after receiving comments from his friends, Bowman started feeling obsessed to take a perfect picture of him himself. He spent hours and hours taking images using his own cell phone and even skipped his classes until he got to drop out from the school.

Danny Bowman

Danny Bowman Selfie

It got even worst when Bowman who desired to be a model was rejected by an agency that said about his physical appearance which did not suit a photo model.

In a day, he could spend 10 hours to take over 200 images in his iPhone. For six months, he never left his home, dropped out from school and lost his 12 kg of his weight in order to look presentable and attractive on camera. When his parents tried to console him, Danny became quite aggressive.

He never left his home in Newcastle, England for 6 months and when he failed to take a perfect photo, he attempted suicide by consuming drugs till got overdose. Fortunately, his mother, Mrs. Penny caught him in action. Bowman could be saved and soon was taken to a psychiatric in a hospital in London. Bowman was claimed to suffer from dimorphic disturbance of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It happens when someone feels excessive anxiety over his personal look and appearance.

In order to prevent such thing to happen again, there are some tips on selfie photo taking that can help you appear more attractive and more beautiful so you will not get frustrated.

1. Look at your lenses While taking a selfie, especially when you use the front camera, do not look at the LCD screen of your Smartphone. Instead, look at the lens of your camera.

2. Make a slightly upward angle Aim your camera slightly up higher from your face. It will make your face look gaunter. It will make you appear chubbier when you set the camera parallel to or lower than your face.

3. Bright lighting Find a bright location when you take your selfie. Bright lighting will make your face appear cleaner and more attractive.

4. Turn off the flash. Finding a location with good lighting is not the same as turning on your flash. This will make your photo appear unnatural and creates dark background in it because commonly your Smartphone camera features a relatively small-sized flash.

5. Pay attention to the background. Find interesting background before you make your pose. Interesting background should be simple like one with strips’ patterns or the plain one.

6. Smile is always better than duck face. Trust me; smiling will make you look more beautiful rather than making a duck face. Some people find duck face is annoying and unattractive to see.

Duckface vs smile

Duck Face

7. Photography apps There are so many photos’ applications in your cell phones, be it android or iOS, which can be used to make your face appear more attractive such as camera 360. Yet this is actually not recommended for you since usually it makes your face looks like somebody else though it looks prettier.

8. Be thankful and accept yourself just the way you are When you timelessly take your own selfie and find that the result is not satisfactory, just accept the fact and be happy with the result as it is. Do not blame your God who created you or try to attempt suicide. Life is more precious than just a selfie photo.